Instagram provides a meeting space which is used especially by children, teenagers and young people. Why is that? According to the Director of the Institution for the Promotion of Healthy Use of Technology (EducaLIKE), Instagram is perceived as a young network, fresher and more dynamic than other social networks, and it allows easy access from mobile devices. The fact that it is a visual platform with images and videos as the main element, as well as the endless possibilities offered by adding hashtags to posts, helps attract users from the youngest age ranges to this network.

Consequently, Instagram has become an essential marketing tool, used by NGOs and third sector organisations to promote their campaigns and initiatives. Below, we introduce a few strategies that may help your non-profit organisation benefit from this photography-based social network:

• Establish relations with influencers: influencers who have many followers on social networks can be a useful gateway for promoting your organisation’s activities. By being mentioned, tagged or posted on their accounts, you may be able to reach out to a very wide audience.
• Post coherent content: if you are an NGO dedicated to the protection of human rights, it would be sensible to focus your content on this subject; for example, the WWF’s profile features primarily photos of animals. But we should not forget that on Instagram, our content should tell a story! Giving your content a human aspect, for example by posting photos of your team or of your everyday work, will help develop a sense of closeness and trust among your followers.
• Use Hashtags: you can add existing hashtags to your posts or create your own; hashtags can be a tool for building a community. For example, the International Music Competition Maria Canals invites the public to play the piano in the streets, using the hashtag #johitoco.
• Stream live videos: the most important element on Instagram is your content, and according to the latest 2017 trends, live videos are becoming more and more popular among users.
• Monitor your engagement!: You may increase the frequency of posting in order to increase your engagement with users, but don’t overdo it. The Red Cross, an organisation that has successfully utilised Instagram as a platform to interact with its audience, is a good example.